How to Put a Healthy Eating Angel on Your Shoulder

Ever wish you had a little angel on your shoulder telling you what to eat instead of that pesky gremlin saying “Eat the cake?” Well, you can!

If you are entering a Holiday Temptation Zone, you can cue yourself to healthy habits.

Holiday parties and celebrations offer us no shortage of temptations to sabotage our weight loss efforts. Use tech to your advantage to help you in your weak moments…just in the nick of time.

There are a couple of ways you can do this.

The first way is easiest…just use the calendar or to-do list on your phone.

Set the “appointment” or “t0-do reminder” to go off when you will be in the midst of your holiday celebration. You can send your self words of encouragement like “You can do this!” or “You got this!” You can also remind yourself of your intentions for attending the celebration in the first place with a message like “You don’t need to eat what they’re eating to be part of the celebration.” You could even opt to give yourself a little tough love with something like “It may taste good now but is it gonna be worth the guilt you feel later?”

The idea here is that about the time you are circulating through the party or walking by the dessert buffet your phone will go off and you’ll see the message you wrote to yourself when the “appointment” reminder goes off.

Another option for those a little more tech savvy is to use an app called IFTTT.

It stands for If This Then That. It works on the premise that you link channels together and create recipes. If “this” happens on one channel then “that” happens on another. For example If someone tags you in a photo on Facebook, you get a text message that says “Are you giving your weight loss effort 100% right now?” How sneaky!! Or when you get to a certain location you receive a Twitter DM that says “Would your cheerleader/support buddy be on board with what you’re eating right now?” Other examples include setting it to send you a text message that says “Are you making good food choices?” when a certain date and time arrives. Or when you check in at your favorite cupcake store on FourSquare you get a reminder that says “Does the food you’re eating taste better than how you’ll look and feel when you hit your goal weight?”

You can even connect your FitBit so that if your activity monitor is at a low level at a certain time of day then you get reminded to start stepping!

The possibilities are endless!

The point is, we all have moments of weakness when we’re more likely to stray from the habits that help us reach our goals. A little pre-planning when your resolve is high could help you later in your moment of weakness. It’s kind of like having your mother call you to remind you to make your bed..except maybe just a little less annoying.

Good luck and have fun with your holiday festivities. I hope they are all merry and bright.